December 9th, 2011 
James Shotwell 
Artist: In The Midst Of Lions
Album: Shadows
Genre: Deathcore
Label: Facedown Records
Every genre has it’s group of overly pretentious fans, who always think that their opinion of music should go down as law in regards to what is good, and what is absolutely unacceptable. As I grew through different musical genres, I found more and more obnoxious elitist fans; my early punk days were pretty bad, metal got even worse, and now I’m dealing with what I can only assume is the pinnacle with electro music. But metal fans are still pretty terrible, especially fans of death metal and deathcore, the absolute untouchable level of intolerance exhibited by these guys is nothing short of absurd. Personally, I have nothing wrong with deathcore and such, I came into metal after punk, so I tend to favor the faster paced, more thrashy sort of metal, but every once in awhile, I’ve got an itch that only that can only be satisfied by some disgusting deathcore. And when such an urge does arise, the obsessively discerning deathcore fans certainly come in handy, they’ve already done all the hard work for me, with relatively little research, I can find out what bands have already been deemed God’s gift to man, and what bands could get me made fun of, which may as well be capital punishment in the metal community.
And any band that can work their way through a sparse local scene, to earn the respect of even the most selective of fans in just two years time, while releasing three full length albums in the process, definitely deserve a listen. And that is precisely what In The Midst Of Lions, of St. Louis, Missouri have accomplished, as if the staggering amount of consistently new material weren’t enough, they’ve still managed to work their way to the top, touring with some of the biggest names throughout all reaches of the metal world. And that sort of resume lends a lot of excitement to the release of their newest album, Shadows. How any band can churn out so much consistently good material simply boggles my mind, but regardless of how they manage to pull it off, they’ve done a good job of not messing with the formula on this new album.
The appeal of In The Midst Of Lions doesn’t end with their undeniable brutality, if nothing else, their most impressive trait is their flexibility. Any band can tune their guitars down until the strings fall off, and write a few breakdowns, but having the diversity to be able to tour with everyone from Darkest Hour to Bury Your Dead is not something that many bands can claim. Their talent is immediately apparent from the opening track, “False Idols”, hitting hard with guttural vocals, and downtempo instrumentals, that never try to overpower the listener, instead using the copious amounts of calculated empty space. Silence has never been so heavy. But as the album progresses, the extremes displayed on Shadows become very apparently, from dueling leads on “Cry Of The Oppressed”, to harmonized solos on “The Call”, thrown into the mix with some of the most simple yet disastrous breakdowns I’ve ever heard.
I still can’t quite figure out how a band can write three full length albums, coming in at a grand total of 32 songs, in just two years, the staggering amount of work necessary to accomplish just that is mind boggling. But throw in a full touring schedule with some of the heaviest hitters in the scene, and I think I can safely assume these guys never get a break. But it doesn’t seem like they want one. In The Midst Of Lions are definitely a band that everybody should be keeping an eye on, and if anybody needs proof as to why, Shadows should address any and all questions.
SCORE: 8/10
Reviewed by: Mike Hogan
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